OK, listen up, folks. I get it. Microsoft still has a way to go in dominating the mobile market the way many analysts believe it will do in the coming years. But if we put aside branding and marketing, such as the very name of the OS, Windows Phone (hurts me to say it), Microsoft actually has quite a compelling product on its hands.

I have used Windows Phone extensively over the past year with phones such as the Omnia 7, the Lumia 800, and most recently, the Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X. Let’s try to put aside our love or hate of everything Microsoft (like Apple, no one is indifferent to Microsoft. You either love it or hate it.) and focus on the two phones at hand.

Both the Lumia 920 and the HTC 8x were sent to me by Microsoft, so let’s just get that out of the way. At no point did anyone ask me to write my thoughts on the phones, but I do believe Microsoft knows how impressive both these phones are, they are confident that by sending them to folks, the phones will speak for themselves. They are right.